


Give In and Get Out

by Thebonemoose



Series: Attempts at Earning Love [1]
Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: F/M, Gen, JACK'S BACK, M/M, Post-Canon, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:07:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25557826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thebonemoose/pseuds/Thebonemoose
Summary: Jack wakes up in a hospital room.
Relationships: Ben Arnold & Sammy Stevens, Ben Arnold/Emily Potter, Sammy Stevens & Lily Wright, Sammy Stevens/Jack Wright
Series: Attempts at Earning Love [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1852060
Comments: 6
Kudos: 58





	Give In and Get Out

**Author's Note:**

> Do i have a lot on my creative plate right now? Yes. 
> 
> Am I letting that stop me? No.
> 
> Title is from Lost it to trying by Son Lux

There was a faint beeping in Jack’s ear, and his first coherent thought was that he really wished it would stop, so he could go back to sleep.

His second coherent thought was “hm, this doesn’t feel like a hellish nightmare plane full of demonic shadow creatures, that can’t be right.” 

...or something to that effect.

He opened one eye and squinted against the brightness. His eyesight adjusted slowly, returning fully only after a couple seconds of blinking. He took a groggy look around, and became aware of the fact that he was firmly adhered to a hospital bed; bound by gravity as well as by the numerous tubes and wires tangled up around him.

The hospital room was relatively small, and, thankfully, very private. There were two seats to the right of his bed, and in one of them was a sleeping man. His head was propped up on one of his arms, and there was a bit of drool around his mouth. He had dark circles around his eyes and clothes that were a bit wrinkled, probably from spending several hours waiting in the hospital.

As… not exactly _nice,_ but… _appreciated_ as it was to not have to wake up alone, Jack couldn’t help but wonder who the hell this person was.

Just as Jack debated waking up the man in the chair, he jolted, and his eyes flew wide open. They scanned the room for a moment, unfocused, but they quickly zeroed in on Jack. 

“Oh my god, you’re awake!” He said, sitting up ramrod straight in his chair. “Holy shit, holy shit. I didn’t think you’d actually wake up when I was here, oh my god!” 

Jack watched him silently, too stunned to speak. 

The man stood, and began pacing beside Jack’s bedside. “And they’re not even here yet! Fuck, shouldI call them? I should call them. Okay, I’ll call them—“ he turned on his heel and made for the door.

“Wait!” Jack cried, reaching out a hand. There was an IV in his arm.

The man turned back. 

“Um— Who are you?” Jack asked, half expecting another confusing tirade.

The man’s jaw dropped. “Oh! I didn’t even introduce myself, I’m sorry. I’m- I’m Ben,” he said, pointing to himself, then paused, as if that meant something to Jack. 

It did not.

Ben furrowed his brow. “Sorry— I know Sammy,” he clarified, and Jack’s heart skipped a beat. He momentarily forgot how to breathe. Ben was still looking at him, though, so Jack just swallowed thickly and kept his face impassive.

“You… know Sammy?” Jack asked, as evenly as he was able. 

Ben nodded, a grin blooming on his face. He sat down in the chair by Jack’s bed. “How about I start from the beginning?” He offered good-naturedly, and Jack found himself smiling. Ben’s good mood was contagious.

“Please,” Jack pleaded, and Ben acquiesced.

“May 1st, 2015. The day that Sammy Stevens first came to King Falls, and, not even remotely joking when I say this, proceeded to change the lives of its inhabitants forever.”

Ben had said two sentences, and already Jack was overwhelmed. “K-King Falls?” 

Ben nodded. “Jack, Sammy and I are best friends. We live together, in King Falls, with Lily.”

Jack scoffed. “No fucking way.”

Ben nodded. “Really. And they like each other, even.”

“I don’t believe you.”

He grinned. “Sammy makes her overnight oats.”

“This is a fever dream.”

Ben laughed. “No, really. I know it’s… hard to believe. But Jack… it’s been six years since you disappeared. A lot… a lot has changed.”

Jack looked away, and fidgeted with the sheets draped over his legs. 

Ben sighed. “I know this is a lot to take in, but… well, there’s so much to fill you in on, and most of it is not my story to tell. But here’s the basics,” he began, and Jack looked at him again. 

“After you disappeared, Sammy moved to King Falls to look for you. He got a job at King Falls AM, where I worked. He roped me into being the cohost of the Sammy and Ben show, and then we tripped and fell into becoming best friends. Then there were some alien abductions, and…. fucking Frickard, but that’s not relevant at the moment. Some years after Sammy moved here, Lily came here with her crew to record an episode about King Falls. She ended up staying. Also she and Sammy were really mean to each other for a while, and it was very confusing for me, in particular. Imagine your journalistic idol and your best friend being openly hostile to each other when you’re trying to be in and/or conduct an interview.”

“Lily was your journalistic idol?” Jack asked, slightly incredulous. There was too much happening in Ben’s recap, so Jack was just trying to latch on to as many details as he could. He couldn’t even wrap his head around the ‘alien abductions’ yet.

Ben sighed and nodded. “She has given me so much grief about it, but yes. She used to be. The effect is ruined when you’ve seen someone so sleep deprived they cried after spilling their bowl of grapes on the ground.”

“She does love grapes,” Jack said lamely, barely hanging on to the story Ben was telling him. 

“So I learned,” Ben replied. “Anyways, the four of us— that is, me, Lily, Sammy, and my girlfriend, Emily— have been working on getting you back for the past few years. It’s been… rough. And I’ve glossed over a _considerable_ amount. But I think Lily will actually kill me if she finds out I waited until five minutes after you woke up to call her, so… hang tight?” Ben shrugged, and Jack raised his IV arm.

“Do my best,” he said, and Ben laughed. He stood and left, his cell phone in his hand. As he exited, a woman came in, smiling softly at Ben as he passed.

She seemed a bit surprised to see that Jack was awake. “Oh! Wow, hi,” she said, grinning widely. Jack liked her immediately. “I’m- I’m Emily,” she told him. “It’s… amazing to meet you.” She stepped closer and sat in the bedside chair.

“Hi, Emily,” Jack replied, and cleared his throat. “I’ve heard… almost nothing about you,” he joked, and she smiled. 

“I can’t say the same for you, Jack.” Emily’s brows were furrowed, and Jack briefly wondered what past experience caused that crease in her face. “How do you feel?”

He shrugged as well as he could. “Tired. Groggy. Corporeal.”

“The hallmarks of humanity,” Emily said with a wry smile, and Jack chuckled. 

Ben returned quietly, and took a seat beside Emily. “Well,” he said, “they’re on their way.” 

Jack’s heart caught in his throat. This was real. It was happening. Sammy and Lily were coming. He was going to see them again.

He blew out a measured breath, and Emily sent him a reassuring smile. He took comfort in it, in spite of meeting her only moments earlier.

Jack felt like his entire body was thrumming with energy and anticipation. He was stuck to his hospital bed, all his nerves had nowhere to dissipate. 

Ben patted his lap awkwardly. “So… you missed, like, a ton of pop culture. Oh my god, and the music! You’re going to lose your mind, music has gotten pretty good in the last few years,” he said emphatically.

Jack snorted. “You’ll have to show me sometime,” he said, and Ben beamed. 

“Can I make you a playlist? I’m gonna make you a playlist,” Ben said, fishing his phone out of his pocket. 

Jack chuckled. “I’d love that, Ben.”

Ben got to work, and Emily turned to Jack. “Can I get you anything? A snack? Some water?” 

Jack noticed for the first time how dry his throat was. “Yeah, actually, water would be nice,” he said, and she walked to the little table beside his bedside and poured him a cup of water. She handed it to him with a kind smile, and he took it gratefully, almost choking in his hurry to get it down. 

“Careful, can’t have you choking when you just got back,” she cautioned. He slowed as much as he was able.

“Can I have some more, please?” He asked, slightly out of breath. When he held the little plastic cup out for her, his hands shook.

“Are you nervous?” She asked, and poured him some more. 

“Um… maybe?” He said, accepting it and drinking greedily. “I think my body’s getting used to itself,” he added.

“I...sort of know what that’s like,” she said lowly, filling the cup a third time, and he frowned. 

“Do you?” He leaned just head against his pillows, suddenly overwhelmed with how heavy his body felt. She handed him the cup again, and he drank half, then kept it in his hands, privately grateful to have something to fidget with. 

Emily sighed, long and tired. “I was abducted by a UFO. It’s a long and complicated story, and I don’t mind going into it, but it seems like now is maybe...not the time.” 

Jack quirked his head. That was probably a good assessment. 

He glanced at Emily and Ben from the corner of his eye. Sammy knew them. Lily knew them. They trusted them. Had Sammy told them about Jack and him? Sure, they were best friends, but Sammy was an intensely private person. 

Still. It had been six years. People can change a lot in six years. Maybe Jack didn’t even know Sammy at all anymore. 

It couldn’t hurt to try and feel them out, in any case he cleared his throat, and Ben and Emily looked up at him. “So, did Sammy tell you about how we were—“

“Engaged?” Ben asked, at the exact same time Emily said “Roommates?”

Well. That answered that question. 

The corner of Jack’s mouth tilted up. “He did, I take it.”

Emily nodded, a slight smile on her face. “Yeah.”

“How… how is he?” Jack asked, suddenly feeling more vulnerable under Emily’s gaze than he had upon waking up, essentially trapped in a hospital room. 

“He’s— it was rough, for a while,” Emily said. Ben came to stand beside her, grabbing her hand and squeezing in a silent show of support. 

“He’s been doing better. He and Lily both, actually. They’ve put in a lot of work, mending their relationship,” Ben told him.

Jack didn’t know what to think. He’d missed so much. It hurt to even consider all of the things he’d missed out on, and how Sammy must have felt all those years.

“Sammy… he waited for me?” Jack asked, already half-certain of the answer.

Emily nodded silently, and Jack let out a shaky breath. Then he heard the most wonderful sound he’d ever heard:

“Lily, come on!” 

“I’m coming, Sammy! Don’t rush me!”

“Are you serious? You want to do this now?”

“Shut up, Stevens! Okay, here it is—“

And then Lily was there, staring at him, her eyes wide. Her hair was different. She had more lines on her face. She looked gaunt, and older. Then she smiled a big, watery smile, and it was like no time had passed at all. She strode towards him, and the next thing he knew her arms were tight and comforting around him, and Jack was a little kid again, being hugged by his big sister. If Lily was hugging him like that, it meant everything was going to be alright. 

She pulled away enough to press a kiss to his forehead, and he kept his arms around her waist, not willing to let her go yet. 

“Jack,” she said hoarsely, and any delusions Jack had about not crying all over his hospital gown flew out the window. “Don’t you do that shit again, asshole,” she sniffled, and lightly flicked his ear.

“Love you too, Lil,” he said, and she did her best to maintain her composure, even as she sobbed.

Then he caught sight of Sammy. His fiancé. Standing tall and slack jawed in the doorway of the room, staring straight at him. 

Lily stepped away, and Sammy’s eyes never wavered from his own. “Hey, baby,” Jack said softly, and Sammy let out a broken noise before rushing in and holding onto Jack like it was his sole mission in life. 

Jack was distantly aware of Lily, Emily, and Ben sneaking out of the hospital room, but he didn’t dwell on it. Instead, he focused on the solid feeling of Sammy in his arms as they sobbed together.

“Missed you,” Sammy whispered, his voice creaking like a loose floorboard. 

“Missed you too, Sammy,” Jack responded, his face buried in Sammy’s shoulder. “So much.” Jack pulled away and leaned his forehead against Sammy’s. 

Sammy took hold of Jack’s hand, grasping it gently but firmly. He brought it to his mouth and kissed it tenderly, and Jack started weeping again right then and there. 

“Hey,” Sammy said, and Jack looked at him, drinking him in. “I love you,” Sammy whispered, and Jack chuckled, halfway to a sob.

“Love you too, Sammy,” Jack managed. 

Sammy let out a breathless, disbelieving little laugh, and Jack wanted to record it, and save it forever in his memory. Sammy sat on the side of Jack’s hospital bed, still holding his hand.

“You’re wearing the ring,” Jack mentioned, quietly surprised.

Sammy hummed. “People know about us, here. It was… kind of an accident,” he muttered darkly.

“Sammy,” Jack said, alarmed. “What happened?”

Sammy just shook his head. “Not here. Tell you later. But know that it’s safe. People won’t bother us about it. And if they do… well, Lily’s here, too. I don’t think she’s gonna stand for anyone being anything but an absolute delight to you from now on,” he smiled. 

Jack watched his fiancé, memorizing his face. It had changed since he saw Sammy last. Not by much, granted, but still. Lines of grief and laughter that Jack had been gone for, had missed entirely. Jack swallowed around the lump in his throat. 

“You got old,” he said absently, reaching up his hand to twirl a lock of Sammy’s hair around his finger. 

Sammy nodded tearfully, and made an alarming noise, one that Jack couldn’t discern between a laugh or a sob. 

“I know,” Sammy said. “I wasn’t supposed to do that without you.”

“I should’ve done more,” Jack stayed plainly. 

Sammy looked at him. “Jack, no,” he began, but Jack silenced him with a squeeze of his hand. 

“I feel down a rabbit hole, Sammy. Left you behind.” Jack couldn’t disguise the guilt in his voice.

Sammy wrapped his free hand around the back of Jack’s neck and pressed the foreheads together once again m. “You got kidnapped by a fucking demon, Jack. You can’t seriously be trying to take the blame for that,” he whispered.

Jack hummed noncommittally. “I can sure try.”

“We should get you some therapy,” Sammy replied easily, and Jack was so shocked he pulled away, staring at Sammy in disbelief.

“What?”

Sammy just shrugged. 

“Who _are_ you?” 

He laughed “I’m a devout therapy convert. And you’ll never believe this, but I even got Lily to go, too.” 

Jack rolled his eyes. “Bullshit.” 

“Swear on a stack of Bibles.”

Jack snorted. “Since when have you held Bibles in any high regard?”

“Fine. Swear on the stack of Men’s Health magazines that was _very_ instrumental to my gay awakening,” Sammy amended. 

Jack huffed and pushed at Sammy playfully. Sammy just grinned, like he was unable to keep himself from doing so. 

“Can I come back in now?” Lily asked from the door, and Jack looked around Sammy to find Lily leaning against the door frame, an expectant expression on her face. Ben and Emily were behind her, seemingly trying their best to be inconspicuous and out of the way. 

He admired the effort.

Jack was about to respond to Lily when Sammy reached out an arm for her, and she grinned and entered the room fully to grab his other hand. They held each other tightly, and Jack was having trouble wrapping his mind around the fact that they no longer hated each other. 

“This is weird for me,” Jack said, looking between them, and Lily laughed.

“I’m going to make it even weirder,” Lily said, and leaned against Sammy until he got the message and wrapped an arm around her in a half-hug.

“Ew, stop stealing my boyfriend, Lily,” Jack said in a petulant voice, and Sammy and Lily made identical faces of disgust, and promptly extricated themselves. Lily moved to the other side of Jack’s bed and took up residence there.

There was a sniff from the corner.

Jack looked up, and noticed that Emily and Ben had entered the room, although they were still giving the three of them their space. Ben was weeping unashamedly, and Emily was comforting him. 

“Ben, what are you crying for?” Sammy asked, in a tone that led Jack to believe this was not out of the ordinary for Ben. 

“I’m just so happy for you guys. You’ve worked so hard for this and it finally paid off and just— I love you so much, dude,” Ben sobbed, and Sammy stood and walked over to him, easily enveloping Ben in Sammy’s arms.

It was one thing to know that your partner that you haven’t seen for five years lives with his best friend. It’s another to see it for yourself when your partner wraps his friend up in a public show of affection that was easier and more natural than public affection he’s shown you… ever.

Jack wasn’t jealous, though. He felt… sad. Sad, because he’d missed so much of Sammy’s life. He hadn’t gotten to see him grow and change and become more comfortable with himself around anyone who wasn’t Jack, and, to an extent, Lily. But Jack was happy, too, because Sammy was so… bright. He was more unburdened than Jack had ever seen him, and it seemed like mostly that was due to the man crying in Sammy’s arms. 

Emily and Ben left not long after. They both seemed tired, and gave Sammy and Lily fond farewells, along with some kind words to Jack. 

“Are you guys staying?” Jack asked, preparing himself. They were tired, too, and a hospital room was not the most comfortable of overnight locations. 

Lily snorted. “Duh.”

Sammy gave Jack a fond look. “I’m pretty sure they’d have to bodily drag us away, Jack. We’re not leaving.”

Jack smiled, and Sammy pulled him in close. 

Lily was the first to fall asleep; her arms crossed on the hospital bed, pillowing her head. She was sitting in a chair, leaning forward. It couldn’t have been very comfortable, although Lily gave him and Sammy their space on the hospital bed easily. 

Neither Jack nor Sammy were especially small, so sharing the twin size hospital bed was somewhat of a struggle. They managed eventually, and before Jack slipped into unconsciousness, he heard Sammy speak. 

“You’re safe,” Sammy whispered, and Jack let it settle down into him, finding a home in the staircase of his spine.

**Author's Note:**

> I honestly don't know when I'll write and post the next few fics in the series, because I'm currently posting a whole ass other fic and writing another one and I... don't usually do that. so we'll see :0
> 
> Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this, thanks for reading!


End file.
